PROMISES, PROMISES... Squid has to hand it to the leaders of the wee municipality of Sand City. Squid thinks never has a city been able to do so much with so little. And Squid means little. Sand City only has 310 residents squeezed onto a few acres of sand...er, land. But this little city has extra-large-sized dreams. Notwithstanding the very real process of coastal erosion that will someday put the whole city underwater, Sand City is planning to build a tourist resort consisting of 350 rooms and three restaurants on 18 acres of coastal property. Well, it’s not coastal property yet. The resort project is in its environmental review stage and will likely be built by King Ventures, which built the Marina Dunes project in Marina on which the Squid-revered restaurant AJ Spurs sits (note: Squid eats more than other mollusks). Sand City Mayor David Pendergrass doesn’t want to see any environmental saviors throw any sand...er, dirt on his city’s project, either. He says the City already negotiated with environmentalists to build the project 150 feet away from the current coastline to address coastal erosion concerns. “It’ll be interesting,” the mayor says of the area’s environmental community, “to see if they stand by their word.”

CRIME PAYS, A LITTLE... Squid was ready to refer the armed robbers who held up the 99 Cent Store at 528 E. Alisal St. in Salinas Tuesday morning to the ranks of local knucklehead criminals. They would’ve joined other local ding-dings that local law enforcement has told about Squid recently—guys like the stoner who burglarized a car in Monterey then proceeded to toke up inside and leave his ID under the seat, or the genius that pulled up to the drive-thru window at Carls Jr. near the Aquarium in New Monterey with a cop behind him and asked loudly for a Big Mac with extra slur (and when informed that was impossible, drunkenly asked for a Whopper). But the masked men in Salinas, allegedly armed with a semi-automatic, differ from the other knuckleheads: They got away with their not-so-lucrative stick-up (for now), probably because no one thought anyone would knock off the home of all things under a buck—in the morning, no less, before the lunch rush really fattens the register. They even got away with some merchandise off the counter—and there’s always great stuff up front. Maybe Squid needs to re-evaluate Squid’s conceptions of stupid.